One Step Behind

by silver-doe287

SOLDIER Second Class Kunsel was tired of being left in the dark, and he was going to get answers one way or another. The problem was, he had to find and have a needed conversation with Cloud Strife first. Or, the fic that answers a ton of Remake questions. Rated T for some language.

Where was Kunsel throughout Remake? How did Wedge get to the Shinra building? Will we see Roche in future parts? These are all questions I sought to answer with this one-shot. This fic is dedicated to Helsen on Tumblr for her amazing Kunsel fanart and headcanons. Thank you to my best friend and beta reader, Rand0mSmil3z for taking time out of her busy fic writing schedule to edit this!

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Cloud Strife.

Second Class SOLDIER Kunsel rolled the name over and over in his head as his hands, normally strong and still and sure, fidgeted anxiously with a stray string that was coming loose from the seam of his shirt. He would have to get that fixed before somebody noticed the less than perfect uniform; he had never been reprimanded for a damaged uniform before, and he wasn't about to let it start.

A part of him laughed at himself for the utterly ridiculous notion that his uniform was his mind's highest priority, that such a trivial matter in the days AD – After the Disappearance – would even hold weight above the tumultuous churning of conspiracies, suspicion, and sneaking into databases he wasn't supposed to have access to while looking for answers. The idea that a small string kept his hands and mind busy was a testament to the foregone conclusiveness his presence in a field of flowers in the slums of Midgar was anxious to reach. His normally pristine black boots stood heavily at the top of a set of stairs that led down to a path through the grassy meadow. His illuminated, anxious eyes followed the path as it wound its way towards a charming wooden home nestled against the cliffs, a home that didn't match a single other house in the otherwise poor neighborhoods of the city. The mid-December air blew a cool, gentle breeze against the warm skin of his sleeveless arms.

No, of course his uniform wasn't the true primary focus right now; the object of his thoughts underneath the excusing subject was Cloud Strife.

Absently, Kunsel pulled out his PHS, unlocked it, and ran through the long-since memorized conversation with his best friend Zack Fair. There had been a point over the past five years when his messages had been read, even if they'd taken awhile to reach the missing SOLDIER. After four years of no responses in which his attempts grew fewer and fewer, there was a point when suddenly they were being read again. Each time he had checked the status of the conversation just to see the word "read," and each time it had happened he felt relieved and doubly determined to figure out just what had happened to his best friend.

Until a couple months ago, when his messages stopped being read again.

His fingers brushed across the screen, where his words emptily lay sans the "read" checkmark: I'll always be waiting for you to come back. Just make it back alive, buddy. Promise me.

He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. Steeling his resolve with a deep breath and clutching the PHS in his fist, he began to walk down the steps. He'd made it this far, after all; it wasn't an easy feat to get down to the underside of the city with the catastrophe of a dropped plate a couple sectors over. Still, he figured it was the least he could do in offering some young, orphaned locals a few gil to watch his bike while he went to find Aerith.

As he walked across gravel and spent minuscule moments admiring the poetic balance of the smallest corner of Midgar having the most life, his mind drifted towards his last interaction with Aerith, right after Zack had been declared dead. The meeting had been brief and shadowed by protective Turks, which was the very reason he chose to stay away for so long. Teenage Aerith had been stubborn, resilient, and positive despite his reason for visiting her being to inform that her boyfriend had been declared Killed in Action. Then seventeen, the young woman in the floral dress had vehemently insisted the SOLDIER was still alive, that she would know if he passed – and while the concept had seemed utterly ridiculous, the hope in her eyes had weaseled its way into his thoughts and given him the same resolve. After all, how could a mysterious girl who was guarded by the Turks not have some secret answer?

Once his hesitant footsteps reached the sturdy wood of the front porch, Kunsel sighed and turned back around for a moment. He removed his helmet and ran a hand through his brown hair while he admired the friendly solitude of evening at the Gainsborough residence. This was his first time visiting after dark, and at night the gently swaying flowers and soft bubbling of the stream snaking through the middle of the property held a sort of peace that reminded him of his missions to the countryside. The soft breeze on his face continued to cool his heated skin and smelled like a mixture of flowers and mako. His enhanced hearing caught the soft burrowing of wildlife on the other side of flower garden. A solitary lamppost cast a soft, golden glow over everything.

Kunsel had to admit to himself that he was nervous, not just at seeing Aerith and her secret answers again, but also of the outcome of the conversation. Yes, Zack wasn't reading his messages anymore, but the other SOLDIER could have just lost his PHS, or it got destroyed along the way. No matter the reason, Cloud Strife's presence in Midgar could only be explained by Zack's return to the metropolis too. The millions of people in the city would be able to mask his best friend for awhile if he was still on the run, and Kunsel would have been none-the-wiser to his return, except that Cloud Strife had made the news in the loudest way possible.

Over his many years as a SOLDIER, Kunsel had made many friends with many people in various departments at Shinra as he quickly became the most knowledgeable SOLDIER. He prided himself on knowing everything about anything. He knew the ins and outs of most missions, had access to the itineraries of all SOLDIERs and infantry, and his habit of bringing coffee to his superiors and friends over the years had rewarded him with snippets of information others weren't as lucky to come by. While he had the benefit of knowledge before AD, when Zack didn't return and was declared KIA along with Sephiroth and two troopers, Kunsel hadn't had the foggiest idea why or how it had happened. The only thought running through his mind for months had been to find out more. That's when he had dug into rumors about something big happening while on their Nibelheim mission, something involving Sephiroth and the Science & Research Director, Professor Hojo. Then even his lucrative sources dried up, all wilting like the flowers of Midgar at the thought of pursuing such dangerous information further for him. Kunsel was stuck in the dark and he hated it. The only thing he knew was SOLDIERs weren't sent to Nibelheim anymore; he even tried to spin a needed mission out there once and was vehemently turned down.

For years, the constant barrage of I need to know swarmed his head. He was stuck and could only do his normal, boring job. His sources dried up and mum became the word when he came calling, friendly offerings of coffee in hand. The entire time, Kunsel felt his desperation increasing and his hope depleting, until the only ones who still talked to him were the troopers whom he'd befriended who had known the young Cloud Strife, Zack's friend who had also disappeared. They were the only comfort in the desert of knowledge he'd been purposely and secretively kept from.

And then suddenly the opposite happened – some research samples had escaped from the Shinra Manor, were on the loose, and were considered armed and very dangerous. Armed meant human or humanoid. Suddenly the whole of SOLDIER was on red alert, and a new wave of missions to Nibelheim began. Even Luxiere, a fellow second class, had been called to one such mission; and yet for some reason, Kunsel wasn't. At least he hadn't missed anything important, as the other man came back dejected and empty-handed, saying the research subjects weren't in Nibelheim anymore. While the more obvious choice of escaped samples would be more of those Genesis copies, Kunsel couldn't help but wonder if Luxiere was thinking the same thing as he was, whether one of those "escaped samples" had been Zack.

While the walk down memory lane was good for collecting his thoughts, Kunsel needed to make a move. He had lingered far too long already, especially if Turks were watching nearby. Slowing his breathing, he closed his eyes and concentrated on how many human heartbeats he could hear in his vicinity. None came from around him, which meant that whoever was guarding Aerith was too far away for him or she didn't have a guard. Inside the house, however, there were three different heartbeats. Perhaps one of the Turks was inside? Or maybe it was the man he was actually looking for, Cloud Strife.

Kunsel steadied himself and knocked raptly on the wooden door. Through panels of foggy glass, he watched movement appear in the glow of the room inside and a shadow approached the door. This heartbeat was fluttering like the wings of a butterfly, like the person was nervous. Must be Elmyra, he thought to himself. The woman wasn't a big fan of SOLDIERs, or Shinra at all for that matter. He ran a hand through his hair again, cradled his helmet in his other arm, and prepared the best polite smile he could muster given the circumstances.

Elmyra Gainsborough opened the door and almost instantly let go of the knob in shock as her light-colored eyes took in his presence and sheepish smile. Her straw-colored hair was pulled back neatly at the base of her head, and the lines on her face were more pronounced than the last time he'd seen her. She took a couple steps backwards and sank into the waiting chair she had just vacated with a horrified hand over her heart.

"Elmyra?" Kunsel voiced with a tilt of his head. His bangs fell into his face. "It's me, Kunsel. I'm sorry for dropping in like this. I know it's been a few years."

The woman stared at him for a few long moments, and after trying and failing to make a sound with the twisting of her lips, she finally spoke. "Is she…is my baby…" she whispered in broken fragments before trailing off. A sense of dread settled over the home with her hushed tone.

"Elmyra, I'm here to see Aerith," he tried again when he didn't understand what she was asking. He made the executive decision to enter the home and did so, boots falling on sturdy wood as he shut the door quietly behind him. He carefully lifted his standard-issue sword out of its magnetic holster and leaned it against the door, and then he turned back around and took a deep breath. "I have to ask her something very important."

The tension in the room sighed in palpable relief and Aerith's mom hunched over with a gasp and squeezed-shut eyes that sparkled with threatening tears. It was then that Kunsel heard a second, higher heartbeat in the room and noticed for the first time a young girl with a soft pink dress and a confused frown behind her shoulder. He was surprised; his situational awareness was usually much better than this. Then again, he wasn't exactly thinking straight, either. The girl, who had been seated at the table with a coloring book in front of her, was looking from Elmyra to Kunsel with a fistful of colorful pencils in her hands. After careful consideration, she dropped the pencils, reached out towards Elmyra, and patted her hand in a child's gesture of comfort. The forgotten pencils clanged as they hit the table, and a few rolled away. One of them fell to the floor with a small plink.

"Marlene, why don't you head upstairs and put some pajamas on." Elmyra's voice was muffled as she had drawn her hand over her mouth and was blinking quickly towards the floor, eyes following the slowly fleeing pencil. She sniffled and took a deep breath before meeting the young girl's gaze, and with a small smile added, "I'll be right up and we can read together before bed." Kunsel filed away the name for future reference; he hadn't heard of Elmyra having another daughter… especially one that didn't even remotely resemble her.

The girl named Marlene glanced curiously up to him through her own bangs, as if studying him in contemplation. Then, at her mother's bidding, she vacated her chair and hopped up the quaint wooden staircase that encircled one half of the small home. A flash of pink was the last thing he saw as she turned the corner and disappeared from his line of sight. As he stared thoughtfully after Marlene, the soft closing of a distant door brought his auditory attention to where she had ended up, in a room upstairs where now two heartbeats fluttered – hers, the gentle pattering of a child's, and next to her another that only spluttered out of what sounded like anticipation. His enhanced hearing picked up the soft voice of a man, although his volume was too low to pick out specifics.

The heartbeat didn't have the distinct strong beat of a SOLDIER, meaning the person upstairs was most likely not Zack. Was this Cloud Strife? Grainy images of impossibly green mako eyes under a mop of unruly blond hair recycled their way to the forefront of his mind from the news and he remembered that somehow Cloud Strife was enhanced now, too.

This meant the upstairs man was a new player.

"What do you need to ask Aerith, Kunsel?" Elmyra articulated then, sternness creeping into her voice as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. The movement brought his gaze back to her and his mind to the subject at hand. If he hadn't just seen her break down at some unknown thought, Kunsel would've had no idea she had even been upset.

Glancing back toward the staircase again, Kunsel questioned in turn, "She's not here?"

"Correct." The woman confirmed with a nod, but she kept her lips tight and didn't reveal more into her daughter's whereabouts. Something about the situation seemed…off. Were the Turks involved?

Kunsel tucked his helmet under his arm and sighed dejectedly as he stared at his boots and noticed that they, too, were a little muddy. His uniform was really out of code. "I'm looking for someone, ma'am."

"Aerith, as you've said," she pointed out.

He chuckled humorlessly and blinked a bit before meeting her eyes again. "Not just her… I'm looking for somebody else who has been in the news lately. His name is Cloud Strife."

While Kunsel wasn't the best at picking up minute facial expressions, even he could see the impact the name had on her. Her lips parted slightly, eyes narrowed for a moment, and then she had the slightest realization strike her features. Then her expression died down again, as if it had never changed.

"I can't help you," she said simply before standing up and crossing over to the kitchen. Her hands began to busy themselves drying and putting away dishes that were sitting out.

"I know it's a long shot coming here, but it's really important that I find him, ma'am," Kunsel reiterated as he took a few steps forward. A pleading edge tried to sneak into his voice, and he choked it down with a quick swallow before continuing, "If he's in Midgar… then Zack Fair should be here, too."

This stopped her hands; in fact, Elmyra almost dropped the plate she was putting away. She stood frozen, her back to him as tension wound its way into her shoulders and set the stage for the next portion of the conversation. Then she set the plate down quietly onto the counter and turned back around to face him.

"Zack is dead," she told him.

Kunsel sighed again as he finally adjusted the bangs that had fallen into his eyes. He pushed his longer hair behind his ear and offered her a hopeful smile. "I know Shinra said that, but remember what Aerith said five years ago? She would know if he died, and she was certain he wasn't dead."

"Kunsel…"

Elmyra approached him carefully, sorrow finally breaking through the impenetrable fortress of her straight face as she walked forward and stood right in front of him. He was a few inches taller than her, the top of her head coming up to his nose, and he had to look down to see the new expression grace her features.

"Zack is dead," she repeated, but more softly, more gently. "Not five years ago… but three months ago. She felt him cross into the lifestream, just as she said she would."

The only noise in the Gainsborough residence was the gentle murmuring of the male voice upstairs and the rhythmic dripping of water from the faucet behind Elmyra. I should offer to help fix the place up sometime, Kunsel thought randomly to himself in a strange, out-of-body commentary that negated his actual reaction.

The words, kind as they were spoken, washed over him like a tsunami. His breath stolen, he dimly remembered the feeling as it had hit him like the first time he'd been told Zack was dead by Shinra. A cold numbness settled in the depths of his stomach and his legs felt unsteady. He took an involuntary step back to try and right himself and found himself against the kitchen table, which he gripped for support – probably a little too much, as he felt the wood groaning in complaint at being encapsulated between his thumbs and fingers.

He wanted to ask if Elmyra was sure. He wanted to see Aerith for himself and demand that she couldn't be right. There was a small, selfish part of him that lit up at the idea of the sheer wrongness of the news and how it couldn't't possibly be true. Wouldn't he have noticed if his best friend wasn't alive and walking the planet anymore? Wouldn't he be greeted by Zack's spirit as he crossed into the lifestream? His best friend, the ridiculously good-natured SOLDIER who just wanted to be a hero, was…gone without even a goodbye?

Elmyra's lips were pursed again, her gaze not resting on his face and tumultuous emotions that were on full display, but rather on the abuse being done to the rapidly bending wood of the table. She stepped forward carefully and pulled a chair out before giving him a gentle nudge. Kunsel obeyed her wordless suggestion as his mind reeled.

"Why did you want to ask Aerith about that other boy you mentioned?" she pressed as she pulled out the chair Marlene had abandoned and sat in it. She looked much more composed than she had a minute ago, and part of Kunsel wondered if Aerith's mom was holding herself together since he was almost falling apart. The aching in his stomach had risen to his heart now, threatening to break the muscle into shards like glass shattering against stone. "What does he have to do with Zack?"

He had to pull himself together; he didn't have time to grieve, not yet. It became apparent now more than ever that he needed to find Cloud Strife and learn what happened. "Cloud –" he coughed once to clear the hoarseness in his voice- "was another of Zack's friends. He was on the same mission as Zack when everybody disappeared. It was Zack, Cloud, General Sephiroth, and another trooper who all were declared killed in action."

As recognition dawned on Elmyra's face, bringing Kunsel a shred of hope that maybe he was on the right track after all, suddenly a door upstairs opened and the soft voice of the man who was muffled before came clear as day as it precluded the arrival of its owner.

"…you so much!" the man was practically gushing as loud footsteps approached the top of the banister. Kunsel waited silently, suddenly much more aware and alert than he had been a moment prior as he focused his attention on the unknown instead of his own feelings. His SOLDIER senses kicked in overdrive as he anticipated the arrival of the newcomer – the heavy settling of the boots at the top of the stairs suggested a larger person, while the width between the strides suggested not too tall of one. The man's voice was young and didn't yet hold the gravelly wisdom associated with older people, so Kunsel guessed he was in his mid-twenties at most. One more sentence was relayed by the man, "I'll be there as soon as I can," before the distinct sound of an older-model PHS closing and being stowed away reached his ears.

When the man came into view, Kunsel was inwardly pleased that his senses still had game: the man who appeared looked a little worse for wear with a clean bandage neatly pressed into the skin of his cheek and a bit of bruising along his arms, but the expression he wore was nothing short of jovial. "Elmyra, do you know a way I can get up to the Shinra bu– " He stopped abruptly, still halfway down the staircase, as he took in Kunsel's presence.

"Wedge, this is Kunsel," Elmyra introduced tiredly as she lifted a single hand towards the SOLDIER. "Kunsel, this is Wedge."

The joyous expression in the young man's eyes dimmed and then brows narrowed in what could only be described as a combination of determination and stubbornness. The young man's lower lip jutted out as if he was pouting. "Why is there a SOLDIER here?" he asked warily. "Is Aerith okay?"

"Aerith is fine, at least as far as I know." Elmyra sighed again and gestured the man down the stairs. Wedge did so silently, his expression untrusting and perplexed as he messed with the bright red bandana he wore on his head like a hat. Kunsel took in the rest of his figure in the few seconds of silence, and he noted the suspenders holding up his shorts were distantly reminiscent of the suspenders he was wearing as part of the SOLDIER uniform. A sash complete with ammo snaked diagonally across his chest and a crude rifle was draped over his back. Thick combat boots and steel pauldrons completed this pseudo-armor style, and it made Kunsel raise his brow. Either this guy was some kind of crude military, or he was a slum-hunter who cleaned the slums of monsters. There weren't many of them however, and most of them tended to stay around sectors two, three, and four.

"Who the hell are you?" Wedge asked the silence of the room, his tenor voice wavering slightly as his hand twitched back towards his weapon.

Kunsel made no move towards his own sword, partially because he knew he could take the kid quickly if the need came and partially because it was halfway across the room. However, he was a guest in Elmyra's home and he was looking for information, so he put his elbows on the table and raised his hands. "Relax, I'm just passing through. I was hoping to speak to Aerith."

"And he was just leaving," Elmyra added with a tone of finality that made Kunsel turn in surprise.

"What about my question? Can you help me?"

Eyes cast downward, glanced over at Wedge, and resumed staring at the half-finished drawing and abandoned pencils in front of her. "No," she said shortly. "I can't help you."

He let out the breath he'd been holding. It stung a bit, he wouldn't lie. The complete lack of trust in the room, along with getting the worst news he thought he would ever hear, didn't make for a productive day. In addition to that, Elmyra was refusing to help him contact Cloud. She knew something – she was showing every tell in the book – but she was refusing to share.

"All right then." Sucking in a deep breath, Kunsel stood and nodded his head once, firmly but not unkindly, at the older woman. "I should probably head back. Thank you for your time."

As he turned away from the guilt that sneaked onto Aerith's mom's face and headed towards his sword and the door, Kunsel heard a sharp intake of breath, followed by, "W-wait! You're going topside?"

"Back to the Shinra building," he replied to the other man with a shrug and an arched brow. At least back to the general location, where I can spend some private time processing my grief…

The look in Wedge's eyes had changed and some of the jovialness returned. The larger man took a step forward and clenched a fist. "Then I'm coming too! That is, if you'll have me…" he trailed off and lost the determination in exchange for a sheepish grin.

Kunsel cocked his head in confusion. Wedge's behavior was nothing short of confusing. He was about to voice that confusion when Elmyra stepped in and cleared her throat.

"You know, that's not a bad idea," she said blandly. "Wedge is looking to head that way."

Wedge nodded enthusiastically. "And with the trains not running, it's pretty impossible to get up there without knowing somebody."

"And I'm somebody?" Kunsel asked as he turned back to Elmyra. She had resumed her closed-off expression, complete with shifty eyes, and that piqued his curiosity more than the young man's desire to get above plate at this time of night. Still, he wasn't one to turn away somebody who needed help, especially as a SOLDIER, so he huffed a sigh and resumed his trek towards his sword waiting against the wall. "All right then, if you're coming, let's go."

Not waiting to see if Wedge was following, he slung the sword on his back and left the usually-cozy cabin that had turned into a stifling cage. The air outside, while polluted with mako and scented with delectable flowers, was still easier to breathe in than the bad news that resonated inside his lungs now. He gulped in the coolness of night and worked on controlling his expression. That privacy for grieving the loss of Zack would have to wait till he was done dropping Wedge off.

"Thanks again, Elmyra," Wedge called quickly over his shoulder as he opened the door and joined Kunsel on the front porch. Kunsel was facing away, but he heard the loud steps and the uptick in heartbeat in anticipation of the journey.

The other man was excited and nervous, but there were other, more pressing concerns on his mind now. First of all, he had to head back to the Shinra building. Once there, he would need to figure out his next move to find Cloud Strife. Cloud held all the answers he needed and he couldn't stop now, not when his wavering loyalty to the company he'd worked for over half a decade had been riding specifically on his desire to learn about whatever had happened with his best friend. With that renewed motivation in mind, he squared his shoulders and began walking away, Wedge's presence practically skipping to keep up with him.

"Where do you need to go once we get above the plate?" Kunsel asked the new man. He led the way up the stairs and back through the tunnel which led to the rest of the central part of town.

Wedge finally caught up to him, face already a little red but brimming with enthusiasm. "The Shinra building," he answered proudly. "I've got a date with the mayor."

That derailed Kunsel's train of thought for the slightest of seconds. His feet faltered and he turned to look incredulously at the man next to him. "At this time of night?"

"It's the truth," Wedge insisted at the disbelief radiating from the SOLDIER. Kunsel studied his expression, heard no tell proving a lie from the sturdy heartbeat within his chest, and began walking again.

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess," he quoted softly to himself. The words tasted foreign on his tongue despite their infinite repetition from the once First-Class SOLDIER who had said them, and the guaranteed mocking that would follow from his best friend. And to think all that teasing would result in his being able to recite quotes himself…

"Isn't that Loveless?"

Wedge sounded confused, and Kunsel did his best not to glance to the side and catch the expression that came with the voice. Instead, he finally put his helmet back on – with a sigh of relief at the additional protection he enjoyed having from it – and beelined towards where he'd left his bike. He was not about to get into a Loveless conversation with somebody he didn't even know. "Let's just get back quickly," he stated as he finally caught sight of his bike in the distance. One of the two youths he'd left it with was sitting in front of it, poking at the tires and looking rather tired. At their approach, which was the only movement left in the sleeping slums, the kid popped up and rubbed his eyes.

"Thanks for your help," Kunsel told him kindly while fishing in his pocket. Handing over the twenty gil as agreed upon, he offered a casual wave as the kid scattered off with a yawn back to bed. Meanwhile, he focused his attention on his bike. As it was the standard Shinra model for military personnel, it wasn't anything flashy or expensive, but it was fast, agile, and known for getting into tight spaces. The seat was elongated for dual saddle, but it would be a tight fit. Hefting a sigh, he took hold of the handlebars and kicked up the stand before explaining to Wedge, "I'm going to walk it to the station so we don't wake anybody."

"Good idea," Wedge said with a grin and a nod. He looked antsy again, and he dug into his side pocket to check his PHS. "Any idea on when we'll be getting there?"

Kunsel frowned in suspicion at him. "Why, are you going to be late to your date?"

"Y-you could say that."

There it was, that faltering nervousness that left a skip in the other's heart. He was definitely hiding something. While not as well-known for his methods of persuasive conversation as Zack had been, Kunsel decided to give it a shot. He began pushing the bike forward at a slower pace, one that would be easier on Wedge. "So," he began conversationally, "what's your meeting with the mayor about?"

"Nothing!" The answer was abrupt and tumbled out of his mouth before Wedge could stop it. This time, Kunsel did turn to watch as he spluttered and looked away. "I mean, that's between me and the mayor. What about you, SOLDIER? Why were you sniffing around Elmyra's house?"

"I was looking for someone," Kunsel replied coolly as he glanced back at the road. He could see the station in the distance now, although his attention was momentarily focused on a couple of local monsters that were scurrying somewhere just out of sight. He really didn't want to deal with his bike, Wedge, and some monsters right now, so he hoped they would be left alone.

"Who were you looking for?"

The curiosity in Wedge's voice matched the curiosity Kunsel held in return, and Kunsel almost let out a smirk, but caught it at the last moment. Instead of answering, he turned away and thought for a moment. This man was in Elmyra's house, which meant he probably knew Aerith. Would he know Cloud Strife, too? "A friend of a friend," he replied after making up his mind. "His name is Cloud. Do you know him?"

Instead of a rushed answer, all he got was the uptick in heartbeat that signaled recognition. When Wedge didn't answer right away, a characteristic not seeming to befit the man, he finally slowed to a temporary halt and turned to face him.

"Elmyra did the same thing," he accused before Wedge could figure out the best way to deny it. "You know who he is and yet you don't want to tell me. Don't lie to me, I can tell when you lie."

Wedge huffed and crossed his arms, that childish pout resuming its residency on his face. He retorted, "You can't make me say anything."

Kunsel rolled his eyes and began moving forward again, his fingers tightening on the grip of his handlebars as he heard the monsters in the distance begin to trek their way. He could see the station in the distance now, so at least they didn't have much farther to go.

"I'm not going to make you say anything," he said shortly. "I'm trying to get answers on something that happened five years ago. By all rights, Cloud's supposed to be dead. He was dead, at least according to Shinra, until he showed up on the news bombing a reactor."

A gentle breeze blew past his arms and disturbed the piles of industrial trash. At the wind's call, he heard the metal groaning both down here and hundreds of feet above them on the plate, and he chanced a quick glance up as they finally rolled into the station, the lingering monsters retreating behind them. Kunsel quickened his pace towards the stairs, lifting his bike with ease up them when he reached the foot. Once he was settled safely on the empty track, he glanced back to Wedge. The other man's expression, for once, was unreadable.

"You coming?" he asked simply.

Wedge sighed and nodded. "Yeah," he replied, then clambered behind Kunsel. His knees came up around Kunsel's thighs and it was a tight fight, but it would be okay for their journey.

With a sigh of his own, Kunsel leaned forward and kicked the bike to life.

By the time they made it back to headquarters, Kunsel was regretting the silence. He'd spent the entire trip turning over the fresh emotional wounds in his mind and debating the best way to get Wedge to talk. The silence between them had seemed uneasy, at least to him, but then again the roar of the engine in the tunnels didn't make for an easy conversation, either. So that meant when he went to park his bike in the employee garage, head full of tumultuous emotion, he was more than a little caught off-guard by the sight that beheld him.

Wedge leaned over his shoulder, voice a bit breathless as he asked, "What happened here?"

Littering his path were scattered helmets and abandoned guns, each looking more ominous than the last. Kunsel had no answers, and he let the bike come to a stop and splutter before it died. He didn't even give it a moment's thought as he leapt off, leaving an indignant Wedge complaining as he disentangled himself from the bike. "Stay here," he ordered as he removed the sword from his back and dashed forward, until finally he whipped around a corner and came across a gaggle of Shinra personnel at the back stairwell, most of whom were either passed out or nursing injuries. Empty purple potion bottles clinked together like wine glasses at a wedding as his feet scattered them from his path. Finally, he came skidding to a halt in front of the troopers, demanding, "What the hell happened here? Who's in charge?"

An unfamiliar trooper with curly brown hair wearily shook his head and pointed. On the other end of his finger was a commander, his red getup and broken shield showing his status an elite riot trooper.

"Oh man, am I glad to see a SOLDIER," the trooper sighed heavily as Kunsel marched over to him. Next to him were a couple grenadiers and an injured guard hound. "Avalanche is here; they've infiltrated the building. I've never seen anything like it, sir. All it took was three people to get the better of us."

Avalanche? Could it be…

Before he could ask the burning questions that suddenly sprang to mind, Kunsel found himself interrupted by somebody else. "That sounds…positively exciting."

The new voice on the scene wasn't speaking particularly loudly, and yet it commanded attention with the almost archaic way the words were said. A wave of recognition slapped Kunsel's ears most unwelcomely. Not now…

"Roche," he greeted curtly as he turned to face the man in question.

The SOLDIER Third Class' expression was amused as he leaned against the transport vehicle with his arms crossed. Clearly, he was enjoying this. "I have found my match at last," he practically purred in his excitement. "You should see the way my foe fights! Graceful, like a dancer. Careful, as if his hands could work the parts of a motorbike… I must race him again." The sigh he concluded with had Kunsel's eye twitching in annoyance.

"Roche, I really don't have time for you right now," Kunsel said, in hopes that he could head off the train of rambling.

But Roche wasn't listening, if that faraway glint in his silver eyes or the quirk of his smile gave any indication. "And to think, he's returned to me already!" The SOLDIER's gaze settled on him. "You could use my assistance, if you know what's best for you. He's fast, he's calculating, and he has a temper."

"No thanks, Roche," Kunsel sighed and rolled his eyes. "Go find somebody else to pester, I have another mission."

The smile died from Roche's lips, but the sparkle didn't leave his eyes as he bowed his head in respect. "As you wish." He then kicked off the wall and headed over to another group of troopers who were just coming to. Meanwhile, Kunsel remembered he hadn't come alone and decided to double back to where he'd left Wedge with the motorbike. The last thing he needed was to get in trouble for bringing somebody to the Shinra building unchaperoned.

When Kunsel returned to Wedge's position, the other man was still sitting on the bike with his arms crossed indignantly. "Ugh, he's the worst!" Wedge complained.

Kunsel stopped, still six feet away, and followed the other man's gaze towards Roche's retreating back in the distance. "You…know him?" he asked uncertainly.

And there it was again – that guilty expression, the biting of the lower lip as Wedge refused to answer. It was really all the answer Kunsel needed to know this was something to do with Cloud Strife. Sighing again, he gestured for Wedge to follow him and took a detour around the recent battle scene to avoid Roche. When the glass doors slid open welcomingly into the quiet employee check-in area, he took a deep breath at the lack of guards.

"Come on," he muttered as he took the stairs two at a time, forcing Wedge to begin wheezing in order to keep up. Kunsel didn't care much tonight, especially since he was still trying to figure out how to get information from him. So far, his best idea was to hold a sword to his throat and seem deranged enough to kill him – in other words, he had no ideas.

After passing through an ominously empty atrium, running up a flight of too-long stairs, and surviving an agonizingly quiet elevator ride, Kunsel was really beginning to regret his lack of ideas. As he led the way to the final set of elevators that could access the upper floors, he realized there was only one play here: come clean with what he knew and why he was looking for Cloud. So with that new plan in mind and steeling himself with fresh determination, he pushed the button for the sixty-second floor and prepared his statement.

"Look…" he began softly, "I'm looking for Cloud Strife. I kinda knew him, about five years back. He was a friend of a friend. There was…well, something happened on a mission and nobody from the mission returned. Elmyra just told me that my friend, Zack, is gone…that he returned to the planet recently. But he and Cloud disappeared at the same time, so I wanted to ask Cloud about what happened."

Okay, maybe not the most effective prose he'd spoken, but judging by the peeks of emotion through the stoic expression Wedge carefully kept up, maybe it was the right thing to say? "I get it," Kunsel continued. "Cloud's on the run, he's wanted by Shinra for terrorism. But I promise you, I'm not trying to bring him in or get him captured or killed. If anything, I want to help. Because Shinra…well, they covered up Zack's death, and I'm not feeling very forgiving about that anymore. If Cloud can get out from under the company…maybe I can too?"

More or less the truth, but it still felt weird to say the words out loud, and in an elevator in the Shinra building no less. Still, there was a part of Kunsel that couldn't be bothered if the Turks had this elevator bugged or if this would seal his fate as a dissenter. Perhaps it was the grief talking, or perhaps it was some semblance of sense that still existed deep down. He couldn't really make sense of right and wrong anymore. He just wanted it all to be done.

"Sixty-second floor," the elevator voice chimed their arrival, and the lift gave a slight jolt before halting its momentum. As the doors slid open, Kunsel turned his attention to the front and began to walk.

A hand landed on his arm, slowing his movement. He brought his gaze back to Wedge, whose steely demeanor had dropped into an understanding expression. "I really don't want him to get in trouble for anything I say," he said honestly, openly.

"I understand," Kunsel replied evenly. "I really don't mean him harm."

Wedge bit his lip and nodded, more to himself than to Kunsel. "Okay," he affirmed slowly. "If you're looking for Cloud, you're in the right place. He's probably the one that beat up everybody downstairs. He and a couple other friends are trying to break Aerith out of the science department. He's a good guy, deep down. He tries to act all tough but my cats know a softie when they see one." That last statement was accompanied by a smile, a real one. Kunsel could see hope and determination warm Wedge's cheeks and the other bit his lip nervously again. In the background, the elevator door began to slide shut again, but Kunsel stuck his foot out to stop it. The door bounced a couple cautious times against his boot before giving up and opening again. The entrance to the archives beyond was dark and empty. It was just the two of them.

"Are you Avalanche?" Kunsel asked then, already more than suspicious of the answer as he digested the other things Wedge had told him. If Aerith was being held by the science department – by Hojo – Kunsel suddenly understood Elmyra's initial reaction to his appearance in the middle of the night.

As he had thought would happen, Wedge looked down and didn't offer a reply.

"I figured as much. Look, I don't know what your beef is with Shinra, although I can take a healthy guess, because it's probably the same as mine. What I care about is helping my friends before I lose any more."

Wedge's eyes shot up in surprise and elation. "Really?" he asked.

"Really," Kunsel confirmed. "Whatever's going on between you and the mayor, you should probably get to it. I'm going to see if I can track down Cloud. Just…try not to blow up anything on your way out?" The lame attempt at a joke left the ghost of a laugh at the back of his throat, a noise that came out half-gasp, half-chuckle.

Wedge grinned cheekily and gave a thumbs up, answering, "No promises. Thanks, bro." And with that the man exited the elevator, waving a peace sign over his shoulder as he made his way to the ornate mahogany door at the end of the hall.

There was a buzzing coming from his pocket, and Kunsel pulled out his PHS to check the recipient. Trooper Troy Min was on the caller identification, and a distant memory from his days of poking around came to the surface – one of the guys in Cloud's class when he first joined Shinra. He accepted the call and put the device to his ear. "Second Class SOLDIER Kunsel speaking," he answered professionally.

"Kunsel, man, I've been trying to reach you for ages!"

The excitement in the other's voice, with a barely distinguishable echo and murmur of voices in the background, instantly caught his attention. "Troy? What's going on?"

"I found him! Cloud! Cloud Strife, I mean." The words were tumbling out of the trooper's mouth at a rapid pace. "You were right, he is alive! Pete and I left him outside the combat sim in the recreational facility, but that was awhile ago. We were looking for you but with the plate and all that, service has been really spotty. Seriously though, I told him we were grabbing you so you should go meet him."

Kunsel inhaled sharply, relief and surprise washing over him at the same time. They found him! "Troy, thank you so much," he replied quickly as he let the elevator doors close fully and stabbed the button for the next floor. Already his foot was drumming anxiously against the clean, black tile. "I'm headed there now. You're the best!"

"No problem – he was a good kid, lot of heart. I'm glad he didn't get smoked like everybody said," Troy said with noticeable relief in his voice. "Let him know we're all glad he's okay."

"Will do." The elevator came to a stop and Kunsel, pocketing his PHS, almost busted the doors down in his haste to investigate the lead. First Wedge from Avalanche had told him that Cloud was here to bust out Aerith from the science department, and now somebody had spotted him in the recreation hall – his odds of getting answers were finally looking up.

The recreation hall was usually quiet this time of night, but that didn't stop the occasional night owl from relaxing with a cup of coffee at one of the simple tables. Centered in the space was a massive tree wrapped in a glass cylindrical prison, its green leaves shining defiantly against the artificial light that grew them. Kunsel barely gave the tree a glance as he bounded across the room and headed up the stairs, two at a time, to reach the upper floor. With his SOLDIER enhancements the sprint was barely enough to register in his lungs, but he still felt out-of-breath for the looming moment. With that in mind he reached the top of the stairs and scanned the occupants of the floor apprehensively…

…only for there to be no sign of Cloud Strife anywhere.

Apprehension slowly melted into utter disappointment as Kunsel gave a second and third glance at the few people lingering on the second floor. He moved his feet to poke his head around the side of the combat simulator that took up a decent chunk of the floorspace, only to find it empty on that side too. A few of those on the floor looked his way but didn't show any sign of recognition or assistance.

Dejected, he made his way back to the stairs, where he almost ran into a younger teenager also doing the same. Perhaps I can ask somebody? He thought suddenly.

"Excuse me," he said politely as he clamped a friendly hand on the kid's shoulder.

The boy paused before turning around and tilting his head. He was definitely young, short in stature with chin-length gray hair and a monocle, of all things, on his left eye. His expression could only be described as neutral. "Can I help you?" He asked.

"Sorry to disturb you, but I'm looking for a guy about, yay high-" Kunsel held his hand about to his chin- "with ridiculous spiky yellow hair. He may have had a SOLDIER uniform on, have you seen him around here?"

The boy held his gaze as he stared blankly, and then he spoke: "I am sorry, I am unable to provide you with the data you require. I must be going, if you'll excuse me."

Right before he turned around, there was a slight flash in his eyes – one that caught Kunsel's attention and reminded him very much of Wedge just a few minutes prior. Rather than let the boy go, his grip increased slightly to pin him in place instead.

"Look, if you know where Cloud Strife is, that would be really helpful," he told the kid in a low voice. "I'm not looking to harm him, but I've really been trying to talk to him for what feels like all night."

The kid assessed him for another moment, tilted his head slightly further, and then nodded. "It would seem you're telling the truth. Cloud Strife is a friend of mine. I believe he has made his way to the science department to aid a friend." The boy smiled before somehow expertly maneuvering from under Kunsel's grip and continuing his trek down the stairs as if he'd never been interrupted. Kunsel stared at him, hands falling on his hips as he sighed.

"What the hell was that?" he asked out loud. Luckily, nobody was in earshot of his conversation and nobody was watching him stand at the top of the steps in confusion.

Deciding to brush the strange encounter out of mind, he instead focused on the information he could work with: Cloud was actually in the science department now, if that kid was correct. That meant Kunsel had to get in there too, a feat that caused him to visibly shudder as he thought about Professor Hojo's beady eyes staring impassively at him under thin glasses. The labs always gave him the creeps, but he did have something just for this occasion.

So, with that determination in mind, Kunsel found himself back on the forty-sixth floor and inside his own apartment. A brief respite couldn't hurt, especially since he was planning on going to a place no SOLDIER would ever willingly break into. The aversion to the science and research development department lived like a parasite at the base of every SOLDIER's skull, and the feeling was amplified in the mako treatments that made Kunsel's fingers tingle unpleasantly just at the thought. He sighed and leaned into the kitchen counter as he removed his helmet, set it down, and crossed his arms. Squeezing his eyes shut and tilting his head up, he counted to ten slowly and fought small pricks of tears that wanted to make themselves known.

Not yet, he told himself firmly. Get to Cloud first.

Wiser words had never been spoken, and so he steeled himself towards the safe at the bottom of his closet, where he typed in his code and opened the door. Sitting on top of a rather nice-sized pile of documents – ones he'd collected over the years – was a cloned Shinra identification card with the master clearance level on it. He sighed and grabbed the plastic badge gingerly, allowing his fingers to drift over the small grooves of texture left by the printer when it made the company logo on the back. This was a risky move, playing his hand like this, but desperate times and measures usually accompanied each other.

After a nice glass of water and a few more moments of peace, Kunsel pocketed the card, stretched his arms, and took a final glance around his small apartment. It was, for all intents and purposes, a studio with an extra wall to give the bedroom area some more privacy. From his vantage point his eyes trailed across the well-used couch, the fixed bed, the partially ajar door leading into the small ensuite. Then he smirked at the disorderly kitchen behind him. This space had been his home now for upwards of eight years, from his first days as a fresh-faced third who made friends and collected knowledge, to the time Zack came over for their weekly movie night to watch bad horror films and make a mess of themselves, to the time he didn't leave the couch for a week when he first heard that his best friend had gone missing…

To now. To what may be his last chance to soak in the little apartment on the forty-sixth floor that he called home. Was he sealing his fate by sneaking into science just to talk to a wanted terrorist? Was he making a mistake?

Kunsel could almost hear Zack chuckling and see him shaking his head. "There's no room for mistakes when you're doing the right thing, becoming a hero," the apparition told him. The face was a little blurry and the voice was a little warped, almost like he couldn't quite remember what his friend sounded like anymore, but that fuzzy memory would have to do.

"Let's fucking do this," he muttered to himself as he grabbed his helmet and marched out the door, leaving his home behind.

Almost as soon as the door swung shut behind him, the lights turned red and alarms started blaring.

He jumped in momentary surprise before his eyes narrowed and he did what he'd been trained to do – he whipped out his PHS and looked at the emergency alert that would certainly be there.

AVALANCHE ARE TRYING TO TERMINATE THE PRESIDENT. BACKUP REQUIRED ON THE SIXTY-FOURTH FLOOR.

Before he realized what he was doing, his body had gone into autopilot: he'd shoved his helmet on his head, his PHS was back in his pocket, and he was already in the nearby stairwell on the fifty-fifth floor before his brain caught up with his body and he skidded to a halt. His brain ran through a number of impossibly fast scenarios – did he respond to the threat, when he now knew somebody who was a part of it? Or did he use this opportunity as cover to sneak into the labs undetected?

Almost as soon as he thought it, he knew he'd made his decision. He resumed his dashing up the stairs as he mentally prepared himself to go against direct orders. He'd never done this before.

The sixty-fourth floor was bustling with activity when he finally made it to his destination. Weaving between groups of troopers and the hopefully distracted Turks occupying the floor Avalanche was supposedly on, he made his way to the unassuming door on the other side. Then, with a deep gulp of air and a prayer up to whoever was listening, he pulled out his master keycard and waved it next to the door.

It worked.

With a sigh of relief, Kunsel nudged his way through the doorway as soon as he could, and then he quickly shut it again before anybody caught him. The uproar of battle commands and informative shouts were silenced as the science department beckoned him in.

It was too quiet. He walked up the stairs and peeked around corners as he wound his way deep into the labyrinth that was Hojo's territory, his eyesight adapting to the emergency glow and his ears tuned to any sounds that could come his way in the eerily empty labs. Lights were shut off for the night and the equipment, their chrome shining in the security lights that gently pulsed above them, sat patiently in wait for their next use. As he passed the SOLDIER infusion lab he gave an involuntary shudder. His footsteps hastened to leave unpleasant memories where they belonged.

When he came upon a large room, Kunsel stopped in his tracks and stared at the sight. Scattered armor lay haphazardly around the empty space, and large gouges drew his gaze to the mess the grated floor had turned into. Large and small tanks alike, all glowing ominously with leftover mako, were cracked and broken, almost like many things had clawed their way out of them. A sense of foreboding crept up his spine and squirmed its way into his mind; what had happened here?

The elevator at the other end of the room caught his attention and he sprinted through the echoes of leftover battles to continue his pursuit. On the top end of the caged elevator was more of the same, except this time there was a large, empty tube with a single stool in the middle of it. The cage was open and the occasional electrical spark from the lock indicated something had recently been released from here. Warily, he glanced around to see if there was any further indication of what happened. His eyes drifted towards a viewing platform of sorts, set up high with a wide view of the expansive room.

Up the stairs and into the viewing platform, Kunsel found it also to be empty. There was a control panel set beneath the windows looking back into the room. On the other side, a long, ominous hallway led to a cylindrical elevator. Opting to not follow the hallway, he turned a keen eye to the control panel instead. There was a keycard scanner activation, so he waved his master keycard over it to see if his luck would hold out. To his delight, the panel came to life almost instantly, and lights of all colors turned on. A clear glass screen rose in front of the windows. As the screen flickered to life, it brought up a range of videos and photos, each time stamped within the past two hours. Each focused on one subject:

Cloud Strife.

"What the hell?" Kunsel voiced aloud, frowning as he studied each one in turn. Most of the videos were various moments caught mid-battle, where Cloud was fighting with an intense ferocity and determined expression. There were distant glimpses of others that he recognized from reactor sabotage footage: the large man with the gun for an arm and a petite woman with an aptitude for martial arts. In one of the videos that looked to be from the very room below him, he caught a glimpse of another familiar face – Aerith Gainsborough, stuck in the now-open cylindrical prison below. "So Wedge was telling the truth after all," he mused to himself as he scanned through the media. Some photos were timestamped quite recently, and the most recent seemed to be a battle with some ridiculously long mech.

Reaching for the controls, he began to scan the videos to look for where the four could have gone next. He was so close to catching up to Cloud and getting answers. In the process of pushing buttons that looked promising, he suddenly heard the recording of someone very familiar that slid anxiety straight into his gut.

"My, are you a SOLDIER?" came Hojo's creepy voice from some crackling speakers. Kunsel stopped what he was doing and quickly scanned the videos to find out which he'd accidentally unmuted. There it was, a camera that looked to be above this very viewing platform. He studied eagerly as Cloud returned his sword to his back with ease and frowned up at the viewing platform.

"Yeah," he replied. That single word revealed distrust and a certain hard edge that only came from plenty of battle experience, and Kunsel's frown deepened.

What is going on? He thought to himself in confusion.

Hojo seemed to be thinking the same thing when he responded, "No, not quite…" Then recognition seeped into his reedy voice. "Oh, now I recall, my memory was mistaken… My boy, you weren't a SOLDIER…"

Whatever he wanted to say next was muffled by static and the video and audio cut out without a clear reason why. "Well, that was weird," Kunsel said to himself as he resumed searching for the most recent timestamp.

And there it was, a live feed – Kunsel watched with fascination as a group of now five (including some kind of dog) entered an elevator that, if his memory of the Shinra building served correctly, was probably the professor's direct access to the president's suite.

Things were beginning to slide together in a stubborn but fitting way. Now that they had rescued Aerith, Cloud and his group of Avalanche members were on their way to confront the president. Kunsel knew there was no way he could make it through the entire lab to follow them, so he'd need to wait until they left again. Even his master keycard wouldn't get him direct access to the president's elevator.

Resigning his fate with a sigh, he shut down the control panel and trekked back the way he came, trying to shrug off the growing foreboding that clawed underneath his skin at the vast emptiness of a usually lively laboratory. He vowed to himself never to visit the labs in the middle of the night again.

The long trek back took only fifteen minutes, but it felt like a lifetime when he finally reached his destination. When he got to the door to escape the accursed department, Kunsel realized that because the labs were still in lockdown, he'd have to use his master keycard again to get out. He took a deep breath, waved the card in front of the reader, and exited the much quieter conference floor as stealthily as he could…

And then he ran right into the leader of the Turks himself.

"Ah – Tseng, hey!" he greeted enthusiastically, inwardly having a small panic attack. How the hell am I going to talk my way out of this one?

Tseng met his gaze and lifted an eyebrow, a polite smirk gracing his features. Dark eyes darted back to the door taking its merry time to shut behind him. After an agonizing moment, he heard the soft hiss of the pressure seal. "Second Class Kunsel," Tseng began smoothly. "Anything in particular bring you to the Science and Research Division at this time of night?"

"I was making sure Avalanche hadn't infiltrated there, sir," Kunsel replied in as easy a tone as he could muster as he pulled his helmet off his head. His answer came out sounding a bit more sheepish instead.

Tseng looked like he was going to inquire further, but then there was a gentle noise that reminded Kunsel of the wind-chimes on his mom's porch back when he was a kid. He looked around in bewilderment before catching the Turk sliding a phone out of his pocket and placing it to his ear. He listened and Kunsel tried to listen in too, but even with his enhanced hearing he could barely make out the voice on the other end of the phone. The best he deciphered was that the voice belonged to a male.

"Understood," Tseng spoke smoothly into the phone before ending the call and pocketing it again. Then he glanced back to Kunsel and told him, "I must greet the vice president at the suite helipad now."

Rufus Shinra is here? That announcement shook Kunsel to the core – the vice president had been on house arrest in Junon for years, the rumor being it was because he'd tried to have the president assassinated. If he was coming back now…and Cloud Strife was also up there…

"Um, sir!" he interrupted Tseng as the Turk began to walk away. "I really think I should join you and assist in protecting the vice president. With Avalanche in the building, we can't be too careful."

Tseng continued walking towards the executive elevator that was the only thing standing between Kunsel and Cloud Strife now. "There is no need," he said simply as he slowed his momentum and pulled out a flashy gold keycard, one which he used to access the elevator's reader. A single chime announced the elevator's descent to their location. "The vice president will be perfectly safe where he is."

"But sir –"

"That's the final word on the matter," Tseng cut in. He met Kunsel's gaze and now both eyebrows were raised minutely. He seemed to be contemplating something, with his head tilted ever-so-slightly, and then he looked away from Kunsel to face the elevator properly. "If one was concerned for the vice-president's well-being, there are many locations with which to observe from afar," he announced quietly into the empty air. The elevator doors swung open and Tseng walked in, turned around, and offered a final knowing smile as the doors closed again, leaving Kunsel to digest whatever the hell Tseng was talking about.

Kunsel turned away from the elevator, hands loosely clutching his helmet as he scanned his surroundings. As he rolled the words over in his mind that Tseng had cryptically dropped for him, he walked back to the escalator and peeked down at the visible floors beneath him. Not a soul in sight.

"Come on, Tseng, what the hell did you mean by that?" he sighed into the empty air. For a flicker of a moment, his thoughts went back to Zack, his best friend and hero who always seemed to have a witty answer or a joke ready to go when the situation called for one (and sometimes even when the situation didn't call for one). "Zack, what would you do?"

His words were met with the distinct sounds of distant fighting – probably still the leftover Avalanche members against the Shinra army – and Kunsel resigned himself to his frustration. The only options available to him right now were join the fight either for or against Avalanche or return to his room and plot his next move. After all, there were very few places that would have visual access to the most restricted floors, and neither of them was really –

Oh.

OH!

Kunsel grinned into the open air as he practically sprinted down the escalator until he reached the fifty-ninth floor and dashed to the regular use elevators. If Tseng of all people had given him such a hint, that could only mean one thing – that the B3 floor was currently empty. Why the leader of the Turks had decided to share this information was beyond his knowledge, but he wasn't about to let the chance at sneaking onto the Turks' surveillance system go to waste.

The rush of adrenaline, the thrum of familiar shenanigans vibrated through his fingers and toes as he hopped into the waiting elevator. The slow close of the doors gradually muffled the closer sounds of fighting, but he put that behind him – he had other priorities.

Kunsel set his helmet down on the freshly polished floor next to him and stretched his arms above his head as the lift began to descend much too slowly to its destination. Practicing on some simple breathing techniques to keep his mind sharp, he ran through a quick tally of the information he'd manage to get from his mission so far:

First, Cloud Strife was alive, was friends with Aerith, was working with Avalanche, and was wearing a SOLDIER first uniform while not being in SOLDIER. Of course, he had mako eyes, eyes that were brighter than almost any other SOLDIER he'd ever come across.

Second, Aerith had ended up in Hojo's clutches for some reason or another, and now she was with Cloud and Avalanche facing the president (and now vice-president too, he realized). Whatever the reason, a confrontation such as that wouldn't be successful without some kinks.

He sighed and looked up at the elevator – only halfway to his destination, the main floor. From there he would have to trust his keycard to give him access to the three floors below the lobby. His mind drifted back to the gaping wound of sector seven, a feat that President Shinra had instantly claimed was Avalanche's doing but something about that didn't sit right. The entire situation going on with Shinra reminded him that it was more important now than ever to sort out just what the actual hell was going on with Cloud Strife… and what the hell had happened to Zack.

"Well, I suppose if Hojo has a hand to play in all of this, that could explain most of the weirdness," he contemplated as he glared at the wall of the elevator, his memory filled with the aftermath of the death of thousands. Hojo had a knack for being in the middle of a lot of screwy projects, from what his past limited research into the science department had shown him. The familiar way he had addressed Cloud also only bade negative connotations.

The elevator rocked a little bit from a distant explosion, and the slight drop in altitude made his stomach lurch. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his eyes willing his ride to end quicker.

One eternity later, the doors chimed open to the tune of the announcer's cool voice. He scooped up his helmet and surged towards the glass doors that led into the main lobby's atrium. From there, he effortlessly swung over the banister and landed comfortably on top of one of the display cases. It creaked unhappily beneath his weight, but Kunsel didn't linger, instead opting to finish his descent and wind his way through dark relics of Shinra history towards the hidden door disguised as an electrical room. DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE screamed at him from the ominous sign, but he rolled his eyes and flipped the master keycard out of his pocket, pressed it between two fingers, and swiped it in front of the scanner.

The door unlocked cheerfully as it recognized just another visitor to the basement, and he grinned as he slipped through unseen into a dark staircase.

The air smelled…different in the basement levels. Some unknown substance, sharp and tangy on his tongue and sanitizing to his nose, bit into his senses like the core of a mako reactor. It was faintly similar to the usual smell of mako, but down here it seemed more clinical, more controlled. Luckily, three easy flights of stairs were as far down as this staircase went and the smell was enough for him not to curiously pursue any further stairs hidden behind thick, steel bars. Instead, he studied the simple door at the entrance to his destination, eyed with distrust the simple sign declaring it the floor for "General Affairs: Auditing," and finally noticed the fact that this door was slightly ajar.

That's not alarming, he thought cryptically to himself. Nevertheless, he had a job to do, so Kunsel grasped the knob and pushed it open the rest of the way. While the door itself had a bit of rust and age to it, the hinges were in fine working order; not a single squeak or sound alerted any on the floor to his presence. The room beyond was just as dark and a bit boring-looking, if he had to be honest with himself. But what did he expect, a super-secret spy lair with dark-suited assassins twirling cigars? Nah, that'd be the president.

The hallway had six identical doors on either side, with one archway leading into a conference room at the end. As he tried each door he had no luck, as each was locked. Sure, he could break in, but there wasn't any tact in that, no stealth. So instead, he took the path of least resistance and checked the conference room first. Sure enough, the room – just as moodily lit as the rest of the office – was completely unmanned. And there, at the back desk where he could imagine Tseng sitting and working on paperwork - or whatever Turks did when they weren't doing shady business for the Shinras - was a comfortable leather office chair. Kunsel took control of that seat now, allowing himself the slightest enjoyment at the plush but surprisingly supportive chair.

"All right, let's see what shady shit you can access," he muttered to the unlocked and waiting console. Setting his helmet down first, his fingers then began to work their long unpracticed magic while he studied the format of the system and worked to find the floors he had access to. The Turks' surveillance operated on a different software than he was familiar with, but the layout seemed to be similar. And it had everything. Despite knowing they had their hands in many pies, he couldn't believe just how much he could see.

Sector 3's station was the first thing he found in his exploration, and next to that were equal views to all the other above-plate sections. Sifting through those, he next saw cameras for the residential districts – with sector 7's out of commission for obvious reasons. Pushing past that with gritted teeth, he scanned through the database of hundreds of feeds until he reached the ones stationed around and inside the Shinra building.

"Bingo…"

First, curiosity piqued, Kunsel looked up what was available on the upper levels of the Shinra building; perhaps he could see the remaining Avalanche members who had been fighting. The sixty-fourth floor looked quiet and empty, which then reminded him that the fifty-ninth floor had some fighting when he went past. He selected the camera for the Skyview Hall and the first thing he noticed was the upper-level elevators looked destroyed. Glass sparkled from the camera view he had outside him, and not a living soul was around. Frowning at the sheer amount of damage and lack of bodies, he took manual control of the camera and panned it around. There, below his view in the Skyview Atrium of the fifty-eighth floor, was a burning hole that descended a few floors down. Smoldering debris sent soft tendrils of smoke into the air, and scorch marks left almost no part of the atrium untouched. Again, nobody seemed to be around.

"Okay, now this just got weird," he said out loud as he found the zoom function and moved in closer to inspect the damage. The zoom was impressively high-quality, but the closer shot of the deep gouges and massive crater didn't do anything to help his conundrum. "There is no way this wasn't some kind of mech. Does Avalanche even have that kind of firepower?"

Brushing this thought aside to focus on the task at hand, he maneuvered back up to higher floors and was relieved to see he did have access all the way up to the President's office, although the science department was not accessible from here. Typical Hojo.

The camera system for the president's office was impressive, with no less than three different views available to Kunsel. The first two views were from behind the president's desk so any visitors to the office would be in full view. The third camera was stationed above the entrance to the office with a good panorama of the rest of the large room and a distant view of the helipad outside the glass windows.

At first glance, the president's office seemed to be empty. There were signs of a recent struggle: the floor had burn and skid marks alike, and deep scratches like a sword had swiped through it littered every surface. It took a moment for his eyes to catch the slight movement at the edge of the camera. Is that Tseng? He squinted and then the Turk himself stepped forward, phone pressed to his ear as he spoke a few words. Where was the sound? He looked at the control panel on the desk and found the volume button.

"…move his body and then clean the office for you, sir," Tseng was saying into the receiver when he pushed the button to unmute. "Director Heidegger is moving to intercept the culprits now."

The Turk stopped momentarily, his eyes cast downward at the ground. And then Kunsel noticed the body there, hidden in shadow and looking very, very dead. The bottom of crisp, gray suit pants and the immaculate shoes had him standing up in shock.

"He's dead," Kunsel whispered.

Sure enough, Tseng offered a light kick to the body and nodded once when it didn't move. President Shinra was gone, then. Was this Cloud's doing? Or perhaps the rest of Shinra? The guy with the gun arm could have –

"What of the video footage of the event?" Tseng was asking whom could only be the vice president now. "If General Sephiroth is alive –"

Rufus must have cut him off because he fell silent. Kunsel's head was reeling as he took in the newest form of information: Sephiroth was alive? First Cloud, and now him… Had anybody actually died on that mission five years ago? He slowly sank back into the office chair and kept his eyes glued to the screen.

"Understood." Tseng held his phone to look at the screen and then held it back. "Sir, Heidegger is in position. Your office is secured now."

Seeing that this was all the information he was going to get now, Kunsel began his next search for the action that was about to happen. If he could figure out which floor they were on, he could join them and help them get out…

And there they were, in the empty lobby of the building that he had just passed. He glanced uncertainly back to the rest of the empty Turk office before finding the best angle to see what was happening a few floors above his head.

And there was Aerith, her face in a nervous but determined frown. She was standing between the gun-arm man whose face bore a wicked expression and the dog-like creature who had a flame for a tail. He sighed to himself in his confusion, "What is that?"

It appeared Heidegger had already begun his predictable gloating speech, and Kunsel turned up the aerial speakers to listen in.

"…was only a matter of time. And here we are." The director of public security let out one of his absolutely ridiculous, boisterous laughs that made him cringe. "So then – what is this ragtag group of misfits I see before me?"

The gun-arm man struck a fighting pose with a snarl. "Avalanche!"

"Local florist!" Aerith piped in, her response bringing a smirk to Kunsel's face.

Then the creature said, "Lab-rat dog," which made Kunsel actually laugh in surprise – the thing could speak? This wasn't the first time he'd met Aerith, of course; in the short time he'd known her, he'd made the assumption that she had a tendency to draw together the strangest assortment of people. Now it seemed that she was living up to her reputation.

Heidegger had continued speaking while he was pondering Zack's once-girlfriend and her friends, and he tuned in again. "…not what I would have chosen for my last words. Secure the ancient, but feel free to kill both the idiot and the dog." The last part was directed to the multitude of troopers with their guns aimed directly at the three, and a few of them began to step forward.

"Shit," Kunsel swore as he stood up quickly and adjusted his sword – he had to go help Aerith, he couldn't let her die too! Just as he was about to shut down the feed and wipe away any evidence of his being there, his hand paused momentarily at the distant roaring noise coming through the speakers. And then suddenly a large motorcycle, one he recognized from the display on the second floor of the building, came crashing into the scene right in the middle of the action.

There he is – Cloud Strife!

Cloud proceeded to use the bike like a weapon, knocking at least a couple dozen troopers straight on their asses. "Fucking showoff," Kunsel snorted, unable to stop a grin from forming on his face. This Cloud was nothing like the one he kind of knew back in the day with Zack – that Cloud had been shy and uncertain of himself. This Cloud, however…he liked this cocky guy.

When another vehicle from the upstairs collection appeared and the rest of the team piled into the cab and back, he realized that they were about to take off. As an extra "screw you," Cloud used his bike one last time to plow down all the troopers around Heidegger but not the man himself. Then they began their ascent back up the stairs.

"Shit, shit, shit," Kunsel muttered to himself as he shut down the surveillance system, scooped his helmet back up, and kicked himself away from the chair. He sprinted towards the stairwell, realizing that his window to intercept the group was fast closing. He had to catch up with them!

Up the nasty-smelling staircase he ran until he reached the door and sprinted into the lobby, where a screaming Heidegger was making a ruckus. He took a deep breath, shoved the helmet over his head, and jogged towards the scene. When the director spotted him, he pointed to the second floor and yelled, "GET AFTER THEM, SOLDIER. THAT'S AN ORDER! I WANT THEM DEAD! I WANT THEM TERMINATED!"

"Yes, sir," Kunsel saluted quickly before making his decision – he would need to grab his bike again and intercept on the expressway, but there was no way he'd be the only one. As he sprinted towards the lower-level parking garage, he realized this was it: he was going to have to take down a few of his own – Shinra's – men before this was over.

Resigning himself to his fate, he made it through the mostly empty garage and to his own bike, still sitting in the middle of the room all by itself. As he kicked the stand up and moved to straddle it, the sound of another bike roaring to life reached his ears. He looked behind him at the approaching noise and instantly rolled his eyes as he saw the motorcycle lover himself.

"Roche," he growled, "get out of here. I'm going after them myself."

The third-class SOLDIER let out a laugh and threw his head back, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Now, now, the director wants every able-bodied man to pursue the terrorists. I've been ordered to join you."

Kunsel almost groaned out loud, but instead he yanked his helmet off his head and glared at the younger man. "Roche," he hissed again, "I'm going with them. I'm leaving Shinra. Take your own route and leave me alone."

But Roche wasn't deterred; in fact, his eyes got even brighter and he leaned forward in his seat.

"I told you, I must race that SOLDIER again. The skill with which he handles both a blade and a motorbike are unmatched. I don't care about Shinra, I care about passion, and that man is full of it, my friend."

Kunsel ran a hand over his face as he put the pieces together in his mind: the way with which Cloud had just showed off some skills with a bike in front of Heidegger, Roche's incessant excitement over racing somebody… now he groaned.

"Fine," he snapped. "Stay behind me."

Roche smirked and revved his engine. "You know I'm the better driver," he teased before peeling out and beelining it for the exit. Kunsel, stuffing his helmet back on his head and flipping the visor down, kicked his bike into gear and roared after him, a sense of nervousness and annoyance clashing for dominance in his mind.

Once they were on the expressway and approaching speeds with which Kunsel hadn't taken his motorbike on since he and Zack decided to test their driving skills in the wastes of Midgar at three in the morning, he spotted a helicopter in the distance. Spotlight out and trained on the ground, Kunsel surmised that was where Cloud and Aerith were. Roche must have noticed too, because he pointed once before speeding up more. The helicopter was ahead by a few miles and it would take a lot of juice to catch up, but he was up to the challenge. He leaned into the wind and pushed the throttle down. The bike roared in response as it worked to catch up to the younger SOLDIER.

They were on the sector five expressway heading towards the edge of town, and from what Kunsel could see, Cloud and his friends were on the unfinished sector six side. This spelled out trouble for him, because the road wasn't connected to the highway outside of Midgar and would dead-end for them, leaving them trapped. As he realized this he sped up and pulled up alongside Roche, motioning to the other man to slow down.

"They're going to get caught!" he shouted over the noise.

Roche just smirked again. "He'll find a way," he reassured, but he seemed to get the new urgency to catch up and join with them, because he kicked it to a whole new level. Fire burst out of his exhaust as Kunsel swerved to avoid it.

After about ten minutes of booking it where they slowly began to catch up to the other group, suddenly an explosion rocked the sky and the helicopter that had been following went down in a fiery crash. Another ten minutes later and they were nearly parallel, by his guess, when another explosion rocked the entire expressway. Two vehicles next to them became airborne for a few seconds before crashing.

"They're at the end of the road!" Kunsel shouted to Roche as they slowed down at the sight. Their expressway continued out of Midgar around a bend up ahead, but the one to the right would abruptly end. He brought his bike to a screeching halt and Roche did the same a moment later.

All was quiet. The sounds of bikes screeching, of metal burning and explosions had died out and left a soft wind in its place. They were too far away to hear voices, but the other group had to be over there. He hopped off his bike and walked carefully over to the wall, pulling his helmet off in the process. It was only fifteen feet tall, he could probably hop it…

Roche came to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him. "If you're planning on defecting from Shinra, you should probably do better than show up out of the blue in a SOLDIER uniform," Roche offered in a surprising burst of wisdom. He crossed his arms and tilted his head as he studied Kunsel. "What's your business with them?"

Roche was being uncharacteristically calm for once, and it caught Kunsel off-guard. He sighed and turned back towards his bike as he thought about what to do next. "Cloud was an old buddy of another SOLDIER, my friend Zack."

"The first class who went missing all those years ago with Sephiroth?"

He clenched his fists, confirming, "The very one."

"And this Cloud was a SOLDIER once too? I don't remember him," Roche admitted thoughtfully.

Kunsel walked back to his bike and kicked the stand back up again. "Come on," he said instead of answering. "Let's take the first exit and circle back around."

"On second thought," the blond-haired man replied thoughtfully, "descending from above could be a very dramatic entrance… Yes, I think that would do very nicely."

Aaaand, there he is again, Kunsel thought dryly. Out loud, he merely said, "Let's go."

But Roche paid no heed; bending his knees, he cleanly leapt onto the top of the first concrete barrier with a carefree whoop. Then he stood up straight and smirked down at him. "My rival awaits!" he called from above.

"Why did I think you would listen to me?" Kunsel complained before he bent his knees and followed suit. Roche had already begun strolling across the narrow concrete beam between the two expressways, a one-foot beam standing over the sloped cliffs dug under Midgar. Taking a deep, steadying breath, Kunsel began to follow. He wasn't the biggest fan of heights.

Twenty feet across felt like an eternity, and he took his time to carefully watch his steps as he did so. He was so focused on this feat that he almost jumped out of his skin when Roche swore ahead of him.

"Well damn," the third class SOLDIER whistled. He had his hands on his hips and was staring at a fixed point in the distance when Kunsel finally made it across and onto the other ledge. He followed Roche's gaze just in time to see gun-arm man disappear into thin air, and the road was now empty save for the abandoned motorbike and truck.

He blinked. "What? Where did he go?"

"They all walked off the end of the road and vanished," Roche confirmed what he thought he saw. They stood and watched, together, for a few minutes to see if anybody would return. When they didn't, Kunsel let out a hefty sigh.

"Maybe they landed on the ground," he mentioned noncommittally.

Roche chuckled next to him, a low noise almost akin to a purr. "Perhaps we should take your route."

Kunsel huffed in reply and began the treacherous trek back across the concrete beam to their bikes. Once there, they kicked into gear and continued down the road for a stretch, and he was disappointed to learn the nearest exit off the expressway was a good five miles down. The road from Midgar was empty this early in the morning (as far as the early glow on the cloudy horizon gave indication) but the first signs of commuter traffic were beginning to snake back towards Midgar. Kunsel paid them no mind, his gaze focused solely on the rapidly approaching exit into the wastes. He was ahead of Roche now, something that surprised him but made him momentarily relax. Maybe the guy isn't so bad after all, he surmised as he took a hard right and let his bike drift around the edge and enter gravel.

Roche overtake him then with a loud laugh, and Kunsel was left to squint into the gravel. Even with his helmet on, the dusty air bit at his eyes. He grit his teeth and moved to even his pace alongside Roche's. They had wasted enough time already, it was time to finally meet Cloud.

And then the world turned gold.

He hit the brakes hard, skidding his bike to a stop as the world erupted into showers of color around him. Tiny golden shards, gleaming from the sun as it began to tip over the horizon, shimmered around him. He held his hand out in awe at the phenomenon, waiting for some kind of corporeal contact but never receiving any. Instead, the gold filtered through his gloves and arms and dissipated as it approached the ground. As soon as the phenomenon had appeared, it had ended.

"What the hell was that?" he asked in wonder.

"No idea, but there's no sign of our quarry," Roche called back from where he had left his motorcycle and was now peering over the edge of a cliff. "Not even footprints."

Kunsel left his bike and jogged over to Roche's side, not entirely believing him. Sure enough, as the sun began to warm the rest of the sky and light began to be easier to see, he could see the dirt leading down to the slums was untouched by human footprints. Cloud really had just…disappeared.

"Come on!" he shouted in frustration as he whipped his helmet off and chucked it to the side. It hit the ground and rolled away before coming to a rest against a rock next to the sheer cliff above them. He huffed and put his hands on his hips.

For the longest moment, the only sounds he heard were the wind blowing through stray dried weeds and Roche's even breathing behind him. He slowed his own breaths to match the third-class SOLDIER's, and he took a minute to think.

"I have to find him," he finally said out loud against the backdrop of open air and determination.

Footsteps approached and stopped behind him. "I would like to come with you."

He shut his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. "Look, Roche, it's going to be dangerous. Going against Shinra got my best friend killed. It could get you killed, too. You should go back and play nice. Rufus Shinra is in charge now, so maybe things will get better."

"Have you heard nothing I said?" Roche asked, his voice calm and collected for once. Kunsel turned his head, glanced towards him, and noted that despite the change in tone his eyes still held that same excited sparkle. He tilted his head and smirked. "Passion is what I chase. My passion was once to become a SOLDIER, to be strong and capable, to be able to afford the bike of my dreams. I see that same passion in this man you're looking for – Cloud, was it?"

Kunsel nodded his head in affirmation.

"I strive for passion, and so I will go with you. Besides," he concluded as his smirk grew more pronounced, "I am the better driver."

Rolling his eyes again, Kunsel pushed against Roche's shoulder and began the trek back to the bikes, the younger SOLDIER in tow. "You wish, kiddo."

"You're all of five years older than me," Roche argued back with a hint of a complaint. They bantered as they clambered back onto the bikes and kicked them into gear. Just as they pulled back out onto the expressway, the threatening clouds finally opened and a soft morning rain began to fall. Kunsel realized, much too late, that he'd left his beloved helmet behind.

When he finally caught up with Cloud Strife, the kid was going to owe him. Big time.